


No One Loves You As I Do

by Taste_of_Suburbia



Category: Master and Commander: The Far Side of the World (2003)
Genre: Angst, Family, Fandom Stocking 2018, Fluff, Friends to Lovers, Friendship, Getting Together, Jack and Stephen being adorable, Love Confessions, M/M, Mutual Pining, Romance
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-01-12
Updated: 2019-01-12
Packaged: 2019-10-08 23:43:42
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,156
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17395967
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Taste_of_Suburbia/pseuds/Taste_of_Suburbia
Summary: Stephen sulks and Jack ponders while they both enjoy the retreating view.





	No One Loves You As I Do

**Author's Note:**

  * For [mekare](https://archiveofourown.org/users/mekare/gifts).



> A gift for mekare’s stocking for Fandom Stocking. I loved your prompt of “dutiful/serious/responsible characters letting down their guard and/or being playful”, I feel that this fits Jack when he’s around Stephen _so_ well, so I tried to do that just a bit here. I’ve never written these two before, so I hope you like it.

 

“Lighten up, Stephen!” Jack chuckled. His friend’s sullen expression was beginning to put a damper on his own spirits. “The island won’t be moving anywhere.”

Stephen sighed loudly and with profound irritation. “I know. But  _we_ are and only time will tell what will become of us and if we shall ever make it back here. You care not, Jack, for you’ve achieved your dreams, but there is still so much I wish to do and to see. This  _island_ is a large part of my life’s work and it does me no good to sail away, merely  _hoping_ to come back again someday.”

Jack put a firm hand on his friend’s shoulder. He was too sympathetic to feel spite towards the other’s remark, there were still things he wanted to accomplish and witness as well, but he knew that it was different and even more difficult for Stephen, who had willingly chosen to be here, to have this life and these formidable responsibilities, though not in the same manner Jack had. He was here due to Jack’s promises of proudly aiding their country and adventure and friendship and, maybe more so than any of the others, having the unique opportunity to explore uncharted lands. And god knows Jack had only truly delivered on those first two parts.

Yet it was their friendship first and foremost that always made Captain Jack Aubrey feel content and settled and prepared to do whatever was required of him.

Jack squeezed Stephen’s shoulder, thinking of how far they can come, how much they had almost lost and how much further they had yet to travel. He met his friend’s wayward gaze firmly and reassuringly. “I give you my word we will make it back here. If I am not as good as my word, then I am no man, Stephen.”

Stephen’s entire expression altered at that: frustration at the situation, although perhaps really Jack himself, molded into sudden self-frustration and remorse. “Of course I take you at your word,” it was Stephen’s turn to reassure. “I trust you, Jack.  _Only you._ ”

Jack nodded as much as he was able, swallowing the slight irritating lump in his throat. “What I fear is that you do not trust for me to do anything but keep you alive, as with my ship and all her offices and crew, but I am also responsible for your happiness, Stephen. A crew that is not in some measure content, loyal and therefore, willing has no hope of running an efficient ship, or obeying a demanding captain,” he smiled somewhat at his admission but then sobered instantly. “A friend of the captain who is not in some measure happy, or rather, in most measures happy, well, then the captain has no right to call him by such a term.”

“Jack…”

“Hush.” He stepped aside, allowing Stephen a better view of what he was leaving behind, but not the last look. “Enjoy the view, Stephen. Enjoy the view as I am. As I always have.”

Stephen glanced up in alarm at Jack’s soft, albeit pressing and incredibly fond tone. Jack noticed how flustered the good doctor was and how he tried to hide it, but he continued to gaze openly,  _pointedly_ at his only friend, no longer bearing a care in the world, merely watching Stephen squint up at him as the sun sank precariously lower every moment, unbelieving. His friend’s cheeks red and his tone pitched low, he spoke the words Jack had drilled himself into answering with words of denial. “I always thought there was more than one reason why you had risked everything to save me.”

Jack bit the inside of his mouth. He didn’t like to be reminded of Stephen wracked with merciless fever, lying prone and deathly pale, frail body trembling in a frigid cold Jack could not feel and labored breaths causing Jack’s very heart to seize and stutter, then beat furiously as a bird trapped inside a cage, wanting desperately to be rid of its situation. He especially didn’t like to be reminded because it was not so very long ago.

“You are my friend, Stephen,” he reminded, chided. “I risked nothing. What I did was purely out of regard for you as such.” Or rather, it was purely out of selfishness. In those dire hours of agonizing thought and a memory so pure and nostalgic he often cursed himself for it, Jack had come to bear the weighty realization that the only thing he  _couldn’t_ lose in this world was Stephen. He would willingly be stripped of anything else at the moment Stephen was threatened: his title, his ship, his dignity and tolerate it. But he couldn’t bear losing Stephen. 

Anything  _but_ Stephen. 

Stephen’s hands trembled slightly from where Jack stood. Jack was shaky as well, leaning against the weathered wood of his ship for support. “I’m more than that though, aren’t I?” Stephen inquired, pushing Jack where he had never pushed him before. “By god, Jack, if you deny this now, if you’ve led me into this moment just to turn me away and forbid me any right to know the truth…”

“I do love you, Stephen,” Jack mercifully interrupted. “But is it the right of any man to confess this, to love another man, to love him more than his own pride and even much more than his own life?”

Stephen met his gaze dead-on and the world seemed to stand still for one breathtaking moment, the roaring waves beneath them quieting and Jack’s thundering heartbeat softening until it could scarce be felt or heard. “It is if the other man returns that love tenfold.”

Tears came unbidden to Jack’s eyes. “Now, Stephen,” he teased, sniffing as quietly as he was able. It wouldn’t do for a captain to be seen crying, even if all the things he thought he had locked away with great care, though in a rather careless manner, had come around after all to reward him. “Don’t try to outdo me on this. I assure you, you will lose.”

Stephen turned his head though Jack could see his quite pleased, oddly mischievous grin. “Do you expect me to back down from a fight, Jack Aubrey? Have you ever known me to do so before?”

“No, Stephen,” Jack admitted. “I do believe that is what I love most about you.”

It had kept them here,  _together_ , when always all the world was trying to tear them asunder. 

“Then let us enjoy this view until we return. What we have been discussing can wait; however, this cannot.”

Jack could not think of a better way to spend the night: to rest for a short while, enjoy the view and ponder over all the things he wanted to do to Stephen, later this night and during the course of the many nights to come. “What a splendid idea, my dear Stephen. What a splendid idea indeed.”

**FIN**

 


End file.
